The German demand for a triumphal entry into Paris strikes
the British mind as a piece of childish vanity, only surpassed by the still greater childishness of the Parisian refusal. Defeat being once certain, what on earth does it signify if certain bodies -of well-drilled persons with spikes on their helmets march down the Rue Rivoli or not ? It is a curious proof of the ascendancy Paris exercises over French feeling, as well as imagination, that all Frenchmen seem to regard this march in the light of an inex- piable insult—though they have entered every capital in Europe except London—that M. Thiers himself is affected by it, and that :General Trochu, a moderate man if ever there was one, has been -driven by grief and irritation into writing a silly letter advising the Parisians to close their gates and let them be blown open by German cannon, that is, to risk an absolutely purposeless massacre. The point of honour varies in every country ; but this notion -of making a Holy of Holies of the Rue Rivoli, after Paris has -capitulated, is original.
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